Support Structures for Renewable Energy Communities

To further Renewable Energy Community (REC) development, support is needed to build their capacities. Institutional hurdles and barriers stemming from the fossil fuel-based energy regime need to be alleviated, and the energy system needs to open up for the uptake, acceptance or breakthrough of the RECs. Evidence suggests that so-called “intermediaries” form a part of the solution in addressing these issues. Although intermediaries can be different kinds of actors including governments themselves, in this chapter it is argued that non-governmental actors are most effective in performing the intermediary tasks due to the nature of this work. This work asks intermediaries to bridge dividing lines and try to overcome institutional inertia to which governments are often prone. The chapter presents an analytical framework on the various roles and strategies intermediaries can employ to support RECs.